


the mystery of the vanished shield

by colorsofmyseason



Category: Men's Football RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magic, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Arsenal FC, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-25
Updated: 2020-10-25
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:33:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27183883
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/colorsofmyseason/pseuds/colorsofmyseason
Summary: The Community Shield trophy is missing, and the Arsenal players have to act before everyone figures out about it.
Kudos: 2





	the mystery of the vanished shield

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Coffeebreakcreations](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Coffeebreakcreations/gifts).



> This is a little piece I wrote for my favorite writing partner [Coffeebreakcreations](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Coffeebreakcreations/pseuds/Coffeebreakcreations) based on his own supernatural au, Abstractionverse. If you want to know more about his au, I suggest you check his writings, I swear they're so much better than mine.

As an abstractor, Hector Bellerin prided himself with the fact that not many things surprised him. 

Alright, all those times whenever a youngster just manifested their abstractions might be a little more than interesting. And his special ability basically had guaranteed him lots of missions, some could be described as nothing less than suicidal. But Hector had accepted such things as part of his life, and as long as he and his friends were able to get away from such dangers unscathed, he'd simply move on and get away with his life.

Still, when Granit called him and told him that their Community Shield trophy had vanished from the trophy room, Hector couldn't help gawking at the empty glass case where the shield was previously displayed in its full glory.

"You must be _kidding_ ," Hector breathed after spending almost five minutes trying to pick his jaw off the floor. "The shield's gone? _Our_ shield??"

Hector could see the Swiss midfielder trying his hardest not to roll his eyes as he replied, "That's what I've told you on the phone."

"I know, but I was still expecting it to be some kind of cruel joke, or one of Musti's pranks gone too far again, or…"

"Hey!!" the German centre-back protested. "I take full offense to that! As much as I love pranking you guys," and Hector couldn't help snorting at that 'confession', "I would never do anything to any of our trophies! Why would I, or someone else for that matter, steal the shield anyway??"

"Well, every single football cup or trophy in the world is actually an artifact, and contains potent magic," Lucas said, shrugging as if it's not a big deal. "The shield is no exception. So if someone wishes to make use of the magic there, I can imagine that they would do extreme length to obtain it."

"Or probably it's someone from Spurs," Laca chimed in, laughing. "They're jealous of our trophies and want to steal one for themselves."

Granit shot the French striker with a look that certainly meant ' _this isn't the time for bad jokes, Lacazette, please keep your stupid thoughts to yourself_ ' before saying, "The problem is, this place is guarded at night and there are security cameras too all around the room. Bernd has gone to try to retrieve the footage, but he found that every single one of the cameras was turned off for one hour last night, and when they're on again, the shield's already vanished, which means…"

"Either the thief's a James Bond-esque spy who's capable of tampering with the cameras," Mesut stated slowly, looking at his teammates in the eyes one by one, "a skilled tech-manipulating abstractor…or someone who simply has a good understanding towards our security systems."

Silence ensued as everyone tried to digest what Mesut had just said.

"Wait, are you saying that the thief might be one of us??" Ainsley asked indignantly. "That's outrageous. An Arsenal player won't steal their own trophy!"

"As much as I hate to think about it, Ains, that's a very logical conclusion," Auba put in. "Before we can accuse other people, especially those whose identities are still very much anonymous, we have to clear the suspicion within ourselves first, make sure we really _don't_ do it."

Ainsley still looked displeased but gave no more protestations. Instead, he sighed and leaned on the wall. "How are you going to find the suspect from us then?" he asked to no one in particular. "Are you going to interrogate us one by one, asking what we were doing during the time the security cams were shut down??"

"Well, I guess we can start by asking whether any of us were seen near this shield before it got stolen?" Lucas suggested quietly. "Only to help the elimination process, you see."

Another silence, longer and more awkward filled the room, for as much as they knew how it's needed, it's still rather disturbing to see your own teammates as suspects, until Sead suddenly said out of the blue, "I saw KT entering this room a few times for the last few weeks."

Everyone stared at the Bosnian left-back as if he'd just said that Fulham had beaten them 8-0 or something.

"KT??" Hector asked, frowning. "Are you sure it's him? And why would he enter this room?"

"Unless you can mention one more person who wears black tracksuit to training literally every single day, I won't retract my statement earlier," Sead said drily. "And why would I know what he's been doing here?? I might have seen him doing so but I never followed him or something."

"Kola's right though," this time it's Sokratis who spoke out. "I saw him entering this room as well yesterday. But I don't think much about it because I thought he was just having some...personal stuffs there, you know."

Hector looked away as the Greek defender shot him a meaningful look. He always suspected that Sokratis might've known about his side activities, but since the older never asked directly about it, either because he didn't know the exact details or he had decided to keep it a secret, Hector didn't feel like discussing about it with him either. Still, he sent Sokratis a warning glare for saying it so openly in front of their other teammates.

"And now KT has yet to arrive here," Rob said, looking around the whole room. "Rather suspicious, isn't it?? Do you think that he might b-"

"Whoa, whoa, stop there!" Dani quickly cut in. "Only because KT's not here, you guys just decided to prosecute him so easily?? I know him, he won't do something like this… And he's not an Arcaneologist, even if that shield contains powerful magic, it won't be any use for him either…"

"Any use for who?"

Everyone's head immediately whipped around towards the door, where the familiar voice with distinctive Glaswegian accent came from. And indeed, there stood Kieran Tierney, decked in his usual black tracksuit, his football boots wrapped inside a plastic bag he had on his hand.

"Sorry I'm late, Robbo called me earlier because of some problems in my country's Order," the Scottish left-back explained casually as he closed the door behind him. "I only read the group chat on my way here...is it true, though? The Community Shield got stolen??"

The other Arsenal players looked at each other awkwardly, for they had just talked about Kieran, and now the Scotsman himself was here before them. For a few moments, no one said anything.

Kieran raised his eyebrows at the sudden hush that enveloped the whole room. "Okay, I'm creeped out here," he stated, folding his arms on his chest. "Can you please tell me what happened? Or did I do something wrong??"

One by one, everyone directed their gaze at Granit with identical pleading looks that said " _you are the captain, you should do this_ " and Granit, seeing no way out, could only roll his eyes for real this time before looking back at Kieran. "KT," he started, and Hector could tell how painstakingly the Swiss midfielder took care of his voice not to sound accusing, "Papa and Kola saw you entering this room yesterday. Is that true?"

Hector expected Kieran to deny it, maybe protesting his innocence hotly but instead the Scotsman stayed silent, faint pink color spreading all over his cheeks. "You...you saw me…?"

This time, everyone blinked and stared at Kieran as if he just said that Fulham was going to win the Champions League.

"Wait, what??" Lucas exclaimed, voice rising a few octaves in his perplexity. "You really _did_ come here yesterday??"

Kieran responded with a short nod.

"How could you, KT??" Dani whispered, hands balled into fists. "And I've defended you earlier, I told them you couldn't possibly steal the shield but…"

Now it's Kieran's turn to blink. "What?? No! I didn't steal the shield! I did come here yesterday, indeed, and I thought no one saw me when I went in...but I didn't steal it, it's still there when I left, I swear to God."

There's no doubt that Kieran's telling the truth – sincerity breathed in every syllable he uttered, also he'd always been an open and honest guy from the very start anyway, so his teammates didn't find it hard to believe him. But something was still unsettling Hector. "Then what were you doing here yesterday then??"

The redness on Kieran's face became much more prominent as the left-back answered, voice tinted with slight guilt, "I studied the shield to see whether I could craft it."

"...What the heck, KT."

"In my defense that thing is a _literal_ shield, so I thought my abstraction should've allowed me to replicate it."

"And?? Did you succeed?" Dani inquired, not bothering to hide the relief in his voice upon knowing that his friend's innocent.

Kieran nodded shyly. "It took me some time but I did it last night. All those engravings and indentations were a pain in the ass to forge and I couldn't put in every single team name written there but…"

Sokratis snapped his fingers. "That's it!" the Greek centre-back shouted gleefully, causing everyone to stare at him in astonishment, for it's incredibly unusual for the normally calm and soft-spoken Sokratis to shout like that. "We can use it!"

Laca frowned. "Use what?"

"The British Order will have our heads if they know the shield's stolen, right? And KT here is able to imitate the shield. Why don't we have him crafting one to be put here temporarily until we're able to track and then find the shield?"

"Whoa," Auba exclaimed, patting the Greek defender on his shoulder. "That's a great idea, and that may buy us some time so that the Order won't come sniffing."

Kieran bit his lower lip. "I'm not sure. I mean, I can make a rough replica of it but it won't have the same fineness of the original, and as I've said, I can't remember every single one of the teams written there…"

"And the shield's actually an artifact, remember," Lucas said. "While I have faith on KT's crafting ability, he can't replicate the magic in it and the Order may be able to detect it…"

Auba waved his hand as if it's not a big deal. "You can Google the team names and try to put them on yourself, KT. And Lucas, we aren't trying to _replace_ the shield. We only want to make sure the Order wouldn't know we just lost the shield, so we're putting the fake one until we can get our hands on the original. Once we find it, we'll put the real one back here safely, and maybe persuade our owners to add the security measures here, and then we can forget the shield has ever been missing in the first place."

Again, another silence enveloped them until Granit finally let out a deep sigh. "I don't like this," he stated, looking around at each of his teammates. "The plan, I mean. The Order isn't easily fooled, and no matter how much KT's forged shield resembles the original, they may still be able to figure things out in the end. But yes, I also agree that it's the best way to get them off our backs and avoid some form of punishment. So KT, do your best."

The Scotsman still didn't look thoroughly convinced but gave a small nod. Granit looked at Hector. "Hec, I want you to assist KT. Your Metal Sound might be useful in this matter. And everyone else can come with me. We have to separate ourselves into smaller teams to investigate this…"

As Granit and the others step outside the room, Kieran looks at Hector, a slight desperate look in his eyes. "Do things like this happen often around here?"

Hector shook his head. "I assure you it doesn't, guess it's just our luck," he sighed. "And as impossible as it might sound, I really, really hope this plan would work. Come on, let's not waste any more time for now, we have to finish the shield soon."

Kieran nodded and closed his eyes. Firmly picturing the image of the Community Shield trophy in his mind, he began crafting.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry for ending this in a cliffhanger but I honestly don't know what to write anymore XD for more explanations regarding the characters here and their powers, go find it [here](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Coffeebreakcreations/pseuds/Coffeebreakcreations)!
> 
> Also, you can check my [tumblr](https://colorsofmyseason.tumblr.com/tagged/fanfiction) for more fic dumps/entries, especially about my supernatural AU.
> 
> Hope you like it, kudos, comments and constructive criticisms are appreciated!


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